Being a black cavendish blend, you get the vanilla flavor you expect, plus a little hazelnut hit to boot. I found it a little spicy, too. Burns kind of fast, but I experienced no tongue bite, and it performed fairly decently with no goop. It's not a great blend, but if you like a vanilla flavored mixture, you can certainly do much worse.

Alsbo Black . Having read mixed responses to this I decided to try it myself . The first thing to notice is the unlit aroma , it is a Cavendish smell that has a touch of aromatic to it which is easily noticeable as a Vanilla . It has a superb/even consistency to it which makes it very enticing . It is of a good moistness which will not require any extra drying/airing time . Once lit it has a great taste to it where the most prominent "added" flavour is Vanilla but not too heavy as to completely mask the Cavendish . The actual texture of the smoke is quite thick but not too heavy and it delivers zero tongue bite . The burn is very even and steady requiring not many re-lights , creating an almost "Cigar like "white ash . The Vanilla flavour does not dissipate any as the bowl burns but with time you notice the Hazelnut as well . Unlike many Cavendish aromatics it does not create a lot of cake and goop in the bowl . A very nice smoke .

This is one of the first tobaccos I've tried. At the beginning I smoked only aromatics like most new pipe smokers. Now I prefer virginias and balkan blend with moderate amount of latakia, but Alsbo black still attracts me from time to time. Smells very pleasant from the pouch, packs and lights easily and burns leaving white dry ash. I like the nutty vanilla flavor of this blend even if the tobacco taste sometimes get lost between vanilla and nuts. Room note, sweet and spicy with some honey notes, is pleasant even for non smokers. Not bad overall. Especially when you need something with a pleasant smell for you and others around you.

If you like your Danes hairy, conquestious with a penchant for horn adorned helmets and invading Lindesfarne then this is probably not for you.

However if Magnus Magnusson is more your cup of tobacco then this may be up your street. It's cool, calm and won't let you pass without trying.

It burns cool and smooth and probably leaves the best aroma of any tobacco I have tried so far. I have yet to experience any tongue bite after 100g of this, just a mellow taste and kick that is suitable all day long. Recommended.

Nothing to write home about. Just OK if you are looking for a Vanilla aromatic. It does not burn too hot and it does not possess a strong tongue bite. Probably I got a dry pouch - but overall I will not buy another one. I have found quite a few better aromatics in this group.

First pipe tobacco I tried in the early '90s. I still come back to it again and again. Not strong at all but such a comforting taste and feel. I will continue to smoke this lovely sweet blend. ## edit ## Its great actually. Just realised that I smoke quite a lot of this. I seem to get more pipes per ounce too.

first the good things, the taste is good, no tonguebite good roomnote. the not so good things, MILD MILD !! monotone flavoring. the flavour stays throughout the bowl good for the newbee pipesmoker. i would not recommend it to the more experienced pipesmoker

I bought my first pouch of Alsbo Black in Poland. I liked the aroma as soon as I opened it. I swear I could smell hints of whiskey in it.

It is a very nice smoke, with a very pleasant taste. I tasted a nice natural tobacco with hints of nuts and whiskey. It burned nice but I found it could get quite wet towards the end of the bowl and it seemed to burn somewhat hot. It quite reminded me of Peterson's Sunset Breeze.

A pleasant enough black cavendish but not as memorable as its more aromatic companion ALSBO GOLD. There is sweetness enough though I crave my aromatics with a bit more sugar and spicyness. There's a slight taste of vanilla. Pleasant mouth feel, smokes cool in the pipe, is almost impossible to get hot or bitter in the bowl and finishes nicely. Agree with other taboccoreviews.com scribes who would recommend this mixture to a frosh pipe smoker seeking a gentle introduction to the pipe smoking life.

The first pipe tobacco I ever smoked, and unbelievably beautiful I think! Wonderful aroma, no tongue bite and super smooth...I'll sit back with a whisky and a pipe full of this stuff forever, make mine the Alsbo!!!

An easy beginner's aromatic. High quality Cavendish for a reasonnable price with a good vanilla topping. It smokes very smooth, with a mild taste and a wonderful room note. No problems with packing and lighting, leaves very little dottle and doesn't smaoke wet if you smoke slowly. I like to have some in my car or my vest pocket as an all round or emergency tobacco. Not for people who look for complex flavors, nicotine kick or 'real' tobacco taste.

Alsbo Black is a good, though rather pedestrian, Black Cavendish, It's sweet, very aromatic and the description is pretty accurate: vanilla and hazelnut is what you get.

Unfortunately, and unlike Mac Baren's Black Ambrosia, there`s not much in the way of tobacco flavor. However it burns pretty well, virtually without tongue bite and with a room note that tends to dissipate quickly. It has a little more ump than its Golden sibling (basically a vanilla/pistaccio tasting golden cavendish).

Well i find it better than the gold, but neither i enjoyed. The pouch aroma was nice and so was the room note, i found it lingered for several days in my garage, but the taste to me was like plastic and vanilla. I bought this when it was on sale, and im shocked the company expects you to pay that much for the pouch. I think there are better black blends out there.

This is the first tobacco I smoked and really enjoyed. I think this stuff is great and usually have some lying around. It is mild and has a great room note. Even non smokers will be complementing you on your choice of tobacco. I usually smoke this when I've got company as most folks really like the aroma. I'd recommend this to a new pipe smoker as it is not too strong and is a very pleasant mild smoke. I personally find Alsbo Black to be a great smoke any time of day or night.

Again, a nice black cavendish, decent quality, but very mild. Suitable for the beginner that gets tired of the mostly golden mixtures and wants something stronger on the taste side.

Not much to say about it, it's the typical black cavendish mixture, 1/2 to 2/3 black leaf, the rest golden/brown leaves. It's NOT cheap quality tobacco, but not good either; and it's just very mild, making you puff harder for some taste/nicotine kick. But it's tastier than Alsbo gold.

It could be a bit hard to light properly and this one will not really smoke dry, rather on the wet side, but never, ever as bad as the good ol' Captain Black(...)

The room aroma is nice, the pouch aroma also, and the pouch is nice looking.

This is one of those tobaccos I wish I had an oportunity to start pipe smoking with years ago, back then I went the usual way: Captain Black, Mac barens, Clan, etc... this one is better than those in the sense that is both mild and aromatic but tastes like something (something like vanilla and hazelnut) Then again, is a great tobacco (not superb quality though) but there are so many other brands that I became a big fan of in the meantime, that now I feel great for finally trying it out, but even though I'm enjoying a pipe full of this stuff, I think it's hard to get stuck on something like this like I would have done years ago, but I will strongly recommend it to both, starters and anyone who fancies a mild danish aromatic that's a bit classier and less goopey than most cheap aromatics. It's a great all day smoke. and leaves a great room note. For the english tobacco smoker, this is probably girlie stuff.

I found this Danish tobacco to be a bit too mellow for my tastes, being a predominantly english smoker with leanings toward all things Balkan.

This is a great beginner's smoke; not overpowering, essentially not a tongue-burner (although you could if you tried!), and carries a "wife rating" that's decent enough to allow more than a few pleasant puffs indoors.

I wouldn't, however, recommend this tobacco to a more seasoned smoker; it's simply too mild to be sampled without being bored of it even after a few sessions.

This is my current all day aromatic smoke. I discovered it on this website before buying. It can be best summed up as Clan sweet and low in my opinion.

Great vanilla taste and room aroma. SWMBO even comments on how nice it smells when I come in from the garage. Virtually no tongue bite unless you puff really hard. Nicely packaged and relatively good value. What more can I say. Will keep buying until I find a better aromatic.

Recommended.

UPDATE - by the time I finished the 50g pouch I was pretty fed up of the sickly sweet taste of this tobacco. Don't think I will be buying it again as I have found better tobaccos since.

Like all pipetobacco's from denmark, this is a great tobacco to smooke. Here in belgium all kinds of Albo tobacco are not hard to find, and I smooke them all regular.Looking foreward to smooke American blends, but we don't have them over here and they are hard to find. Anyway, all blends of Alsbo are great and usefull to try them all!

This is a really mild aromatic, its surely good quality tobacco- it lights easily burns cool, doesnt bite, doesnt gurgle. A bit too mild for me though, you can only taste the casings when you light, they are an elusive sort, with a hint of vanilla. The tobacco flavour is really mild cavendish, with a hint of Virginia sweetness, but MILD. Shouldn't put the word mild in capitals even, its that mild. It leaves a wad of sticky dottle after an even slow burn, as with the other Alsbo blends. People love the aroma, as they should, it is after all an aromatic. But despite its obviously high quality, I'd prefer something a bit more interesting, Clan or Amphora. The Dutch aromatics seem a bit stronger tasting. Are all the Danish blends this mild?

============UPDATE=========================

I've surprised myself by buying this blend again. t still doesnt really taste of anything, but the aroma is lovely, and can be appreciated well by breathing the smoke out through the nose. I think the casings in this must be of the highest quality- they are not subtle, but smell really complex and delicious, far from the sugary monotone of most sticky vanilla aromatics. There does not seem to be any nicotene in this stuff, which is to my advantage when I decide to smoke my huge German porcelain pipe- it smokes for ages, and anything stronger than this would poison me before I finished the bowl. Must say, though, this blend always seems to get hot quite easily, although it never bites. Here again the porcelain pipe helps, the stem is so long that it can cool down anything, almost like a hookah.

January 2006. Alsbo Black,if I was just starting out in the wonderful world of pipe smoking again,like I did 34 year's ago,I would most likely think this is a really great blend,but,it's not 34 year's ago and my taste's have definitely changed over the year's. Put it this way,if your new to pipe smoking or you enjoy really soft vanilla blend's then you'll most likely love this! For easy lighting,air out enough tobacco to fill your pipe bowl on paper for 20 min's.Then fill your pipe & light up,between 2 to 4 tamp's should be all that is required to get you smoking down to bowl's end.Along the way you'll discover just how mild this blend really is.

Ok to me, being not a real aromatic lover - however I am not that anti-aromatic anymore. All is about medium on this tobacco, due to the cavendisch, I suppose. The flavoring is more or less discrete. Not a big thrill, not bad eather. So ... somewhat recommended.

This is a fine tobacco. Pouch says vanilla and hazelnut. Don?t know about the hazelnut, but this is a typical Danish cavendish aromatic with vanilla aroma. The taste however, is rather more like tobacco than dessert. Mild in strenghth and easy to smoke- typicaly Danish ?no problem? smoke. After a few bowls of English blends, I smoke this one to please my wife with ?something that doesn?t stink like that other stuff I smoke?. I smoke this to the end of the bowl, and it leaves nothing more than fine gray ashes and a nice smell to the room.

I use to smoke Black Cavendish tobacco regularly and this one is a very good and mild one. Very mild and pleasant,easy and slow burning with a very nice aroma and room note.Very good in taste . Very easy to fill and pack. A pleasure to be smoked and smelled.

One tends to leave aromatics in the trend to more refined tobaccos, learning the joys of fine Virginias and the rich Latakias - odes be payed to these all mighty Godessess of fumes. However, the love certain non-smokers demands the use of unoffensive smelling tobaccos. This is the best I know for such purposes. I wouldn't even call it an aromatic if I'd never crossed the path of someone smoking it. As a bonus, it actualy as TOBACCO in it, and it is GOOD, much above average, dispite it's wonderful room note - people turn their heads around sniffing like cockerspaniels - but not fruit-like, just pipesmoke. The rich cavendish smoke is delightful and rich. Never had a tongue-bite, as it is not wet as the so-called commercial aromatics. So I do keep it at hand and smoke it even when I'm alone.